Ottawa dentist sentenced to jail for tax evasion

An Ottawa dentist received a two-year conditional jail sentence Thursday after pleading guilty to tax fraud and laundering proceeds of crime, the Canada Revenue Agency said.

The Ontario Court of Justice case is the first in Canada to successfully apply money laundering provisions to a tax evasion conviction, the agency said.

The CRA found that Kin Tung Fong’s spouse transferred unreported income to Costa Rica under “private contracts” to him. Fong used the funds to purchase land owned by a Costa Rican corporation related to him, the CRA said, and to pay various beneficiaries.

Fong reported more than $2 million in income from his dentistry practice between 2008 and 2012 and deducted the whole amount as a business expense, the agency said, evading taxes totalling $538,061.

“This tax evasion scheme was promoted by a tax protestor organization known as the Paradigm Education Group, whose seminars Fong attended in 2003 and 2004,” the CRA said in a release.

Fong and his spouse also received $34,432 in GST credits and child tax benefit payments based on their false family net income, the agency said.

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